Chapter 46 - Pack of Hotdogs
EPOV Days before, continued...
He's hesitant, but dreadfully makes the walk back to the garage door. He locks the inside as it was, closing the kitchen. He sees the shadows of feet under the cracked garage door. They wait.
Christ.
He looks around quickly. A crowbar hangs from a cork wall. He grabs that. He hides it in his sleeve.
He slides out from under the garage door. He doesn't look for them, but he untwists the wires. The light over the door lights up.
The men scurry out of view. One shouts a curse as he dives out of the way.
Not the owners then, Edward guesses.
They wait for him deep in the woods. His bin is close.
Edward just glances silently at them. No eye contact. He's stirred.
"Who are you?" One asks.
Edward's not answering. He begins to walk away.
A chump holds his shoulder. Edward shrugs it off. The guy lifts his hand.
"Apologies," he says.
"Who are you?" Apple bitten in hand.
Nothing.
"Mute?"
Edward flickers his eyes at them. His anger now spiking.
"So …" the guy shuffles his feet and grins. He throws the apple core to the side. "You can do that? Easy? You look like you had practice."
Edward sizes them up. They're all about the same build. Apple muncher is older, wider, rougher at the edges.
"You hiking?" Shoulder grasper asks. He seems genuine. Dark shaggy hair, dark eyes. "We are too. Saw this place and wanted to stop, but we noticed it was already … in use." He chuckles. "Impressive."
The other guy sucks his teeth of remnant apple bites and nods, grinning. The third guy is just silently watching. Edward is sweating a little, knees weak. He remains calm, regardless.
He walks, he leaves them behind. And then something tragic happens.
They follow. They're all questions.
"You live around here?"
Edward picks up his bin.
"Baggage. That's a no," one of them says, noticing.
"Yo, Mute. You sign?" Shoulder grabber catches up to him. "My cousin does. I only know some. He commences to show him. Edward's had a book. The guy is completely off, and he's signed something about a sandwich, ends it with his undying love. Edward only sees from his peripheral.
"So, we've been hiking, too. We have a van far ahead. You need a ride?" He shrugs. "We're planning to head to Canada. Where are you headed?"
The others are quiet, but curiously listening to the monologue ahead.
The talker sighs. "Honestly, we're kind of hungry. Like starving." He scratches his head. "We've been walking for so long we got lost. We saw the house and didn't know how to … tackle it. We've never done that—break in."
They do look like they've been hiking for days. Smell like they have.
Edward just quirks his lip, internally he's growling. "We don't know what we're doing. We're lost and need to get back to our van. But now we can't find it."
Begrudgingly, Edward stops and grabs the pack of hotdogs and a drink for each. He leaves it on the ground and walks away.
They don't follow, to his relief. But the next morning, when Edward wakes up, he finds his bin is gone.
…